The scene was a small tennis club nestled among some greenery to the west of Paris, just a stone's throw from famed Roland Garros, where the French Open circa late 1980s was about to begin.
I, a 19-year-old tour rookie entered in the qualifying draw at the year's second major, found myself standing on a terrace overlooking a dozen or so red clay courts, observing the comings and goings of players from all over the world, each with a dream of being one of the 16 who would emerge from a field of 128 to earn a place in the main draw.
Most of the players I did not know by name or face. But one thing was clear — those whose socks and shoes were covered in red, actually more a hue of burnt orange, were feeling right at home. They chattered to each other in tongues I didn't understand — Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, I wasn't sure — and standing 10 feet behind the baseline, walloped balls back and forth with ferocious racket-head speed and topspin. Booming serves and forays to the net? Not so much and frankly not so necessary — these were clay court specialists who rarely ventured onto faster hard courts or grass where their long strokes and extreme grips would be ill-suited. But in long baseline duels on dirt, they were deadly.
There was a time when clay court specialists reigned at Roland Garros. Astute fans will remember names like Andres Gomez, Sergi Bruguera, Thomas Muster, Gustavo Kuerten, Carlos Moya, Albert Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Gaston Gaudio, all of whom hoisted one or more French Open trophies in the 1990s into the early 2000s yet never won a major on another surface. Now the clay court specialist seems to be no more.
Some might contend that Spain's Rafa Nadal is today's version, with his nine titles in Paris and buckets-full of tournament wins elsewhere on the surface. But it would be underselling the man to attach that label when he has also won twice on grass at Wimbledon, two times on hard courts at the U.S. Open, and once on the same surface in Australia.
The reality has become that most modern-day players are convertible from surface to surface. The very top players especially so, with just three men gobbling up 42 of the past 51 Grand Slam titles: Roger Federer (17), Rafael Nadal (14) and Novak Djokovic (11). Add in two-time major winner Andy Murray and this quartet perennially makes up the favorites at every Grand Slam event.
This was not the case back in the day, when the aforementioned clay courters were the big dogs in Paris yet upset opportunities on faster courts, while someone like Pete Sampras, the most dominant player of his generation with heaps of Grand Slam titles, was viewed as playing for scraps at Roland Garros. His best result was reaching a semifinal.
While the clay hasn't changed at Roland Garros, which actually plays on the quicker end of the clay court spectrum especially when the weather is warm and dry, the other surfaces, from hard to indoor to grass, have been moderated to medium speeds, thus allowing players who excel on clay to also succeed elsewhere.
